Statement of RPV Chairman Pat Mullins on the passage of three Republican health insurance freedom bills

Contact: Garren Shipley 804-780-0111

RPV Chairman Pat Mullins issued the following statement following the Virginia Senate's bipartisan 23-17 vote in favor of Republican health insurance freedom bills.

"Monday's bipartisan vote illustrates just how far out of touch Democrats like Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-11th, are on the issue of health care," Mullins said. "When Republicans asked Senate Democrats to join them in standing up against federal overreach, five decided to put the rights of their constituents ahead of the wishes of Washington, D.C."

SB 283, SB 311 and SB 417 patroned by Sens. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, Stephen Martin, R-Chesterfield and Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Upperville, make it clear that no resident of the Commonwealth shall be required to purchase health insurance.

Perriello and Connolly voted in favor a bill backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year that would have required every Virginian to purchase federal government approved insurance from a federal government approved insurance company in a federal government created marketplace, or face stiff fines or jail time.

"Even Democrats in the Virginia Senate realize that the health care nightmare being negotiated behind closed doors across the Potomac is bad news for their constituents," Mullins said. "Monday's vote shows again that Reps. Perriello, Connolly and the rest of the Democrats in Washington, D.C., aren't listening to their employers - the voters of the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Paid for and authorized by the Republican Party of Virginia